Houthi rebels attack Israel's Red Sea strait, intensify gunfight in Israel's Gaza Strip

Yemen's Houthi rebels rejected the U.S.-led naval operation and formalized their support for the Hamas movement, declaring that they would continue to target ships passing through the Red Sea heading to Israel, and the Israeli military struck the already shattered Gaza Strip with missiles on the 19th. Civilian deaths were included in the operation.
The Houthi rebels designated the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, which leads to Israel, where most daily necessities and military supplies are supplied by sea transport, as the area of concentration.
Israeli troops engaged in fierce gunfights on the streets of the Gaza Strip's second-largest city on the 20th, as a UN vote to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid was postponed on the 19th, and the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli attacks left coastal areas in ruins. , reportedly caused widespread hunger and homelessness and killed nearly 20,000 Gazans.
Reuters reported on the 20th, “UN talks to avoid a third US veto on the two-month-long Israel-Hamas war were postponed on the 19th as they continued,” adding, “Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Hamas, which is supported by Iran, will not allow Gaza.” “The war will not stop until the remaining 129 hostages held on Earth are released and Islamist groups are eradicated,” he said.
Reuters reported on the 19th that Yemen's Houthi rebels are attacking ships in the Red Sea, disrupting maritime trade through the Suez Canal and causing some ships to reroute to the much longer east-west route via the southern tip of Africa.
“If Gaza does not receive the food and medicine it needs, all ships heading to Israeli ports from the Red Sea will be targeted by our forces, regardless of nationality,” a Houthi rebel spokesman said in a statement on the 19th.
The Houthi rebels' slogan is "Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam."
The cost of transporting goods by sea to Israel has risen in recent days, with some container carriers pulling out and others imposing new surcharges, shipping officials told Reuters. said one.
Israel, an economy dependent on maritime trade, officially announced in October that it would "provide compensation" for ships damaged by the war against Hamas in the early days of the war, but did not specify the "burden of additional transportation costs" caused by the war.
The Houthis announced that they had launched drones and missiles against Israel on the 31st of last month and declared that they would continue their attacks "until the Israeli attacks stop," Reuters said, adding to the latest conflict spreading across the Middle East.
Reuters said, “The conflict has spread beyond the Gaza Strip to the Red Sea, and the Iran-linked Houthi rebels are attacking ships with missiles and drones. This led to the creation of a multinational naval operation to protect commerce in the region, but the Houthi rebels It was reported that ‘maritime operations will continue every 12 hours.’”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on the 18th that the naval operation will conduct joint patrols in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, covering the main east-west shipping route from Bahrain, and added, "This is an international challenge that requires collective action." “Support for this should be stopped,” he said.
Reuters reported that British maritime security company Ambry said on the 19th, “We have received information that there may be a boarding attempt west of the port city of Aden in Yemen, but the attack failed and all crew members are safe.” Some shippers have already shipped ships across Africa. It was reported that the route was being changed to .
The Houthi rebels' actions echo the role of the Lebanese group Hezbollah in attacking Israeli positions on the border, and the role of Iraqi militias firing in response to US interests in Iraq and Syria. Reuters reported that the US has criticized Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the Houthis. It said it believed it was helping the rebels plan and execute missile and drone attacks and denied Iran's involvement.
The Saudi-led coalition in the border dispute has long accused Iran of being involved in arming and training the Houthis, but the Houthis deny they are Iran's proxies and say they are developing the weapons themselves. It is revealing.
Regarding the weapons capabilities of the Houthis, Reuters reported that during the war in Yemen, they attacked Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, attacking oil facilities and key infrastructure, showing off their missile and drone capabilities, and the rebels' arsenal includes ballistic missiles and armed drones, which can even reach Israel. It is said to be capable of striking targets more than 1,000 miles away.
Weapons experts say the Houthis' Topan, Borkan and Quds missiles are modeled after Iran's weapons and can hit targets up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) away, and dozens of missiles were fired against Saudi Arabia during the war in Yemen. In January, the Houthis showed off anti-aircraft Bark-29 missiles, naval missiles, MiG-21 fighter jets and helicopters for the first time, Reuters reported.
The Houthi rebels' Red Sea operations usually begin with surprise operations against ships using speedboats armed with machine guns.
The Houthi rebels' role has heightened the regional risk of conflict and destabilized neighboring countries on the Red Sea as Houthi rockets and drones fly toward Israel, threatening the sea route through which much of the world's oil is transported.
A statement from the Houthi rebels on the 14th said, “We will continue the attack until Israel stops the attack,” and “We are only targeting ships heading to Israel.”
MSC, the world's largest container shipping company, said on the 15th that it would avoid the Suez Canal as Yemen's Houthi rebels intensified their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and rerouted some services around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, forcing ships booked to transit through the Suez Canal. It was announced that the sailing time of will be extended by a few days.
Danish shipping company Moller-Maersk temporarily suspended all container shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea until further notice on the 14th, and on the 15th, Swiss-headquartered MSC and French shipping group CMA CGM joined.
Houthi rebels claimed that the Liberian-flagged MSC Palatium 3 was attacked by a drone in the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen, at the southern end of the Red Sea, on the 14th.
Reuters reported that MSC's Alanya, which was threatened in line with the Houthi rebels' threat to the Palatium III, was not bound for Israel because it was destined for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to data from MarineTraffic, a ship tracking and maritime analytics provider.
Reuters went on to report that in response to the Houthi rebels' war in Gaza, insurance premiums for war-risk shipping in the Red Sea were raised to seven days due to attacks on ships on the route that allows for east-west trade, especially oil trade, through the Suez Canal, in order to save time and money on a trip around Africa. It was revealed that the additional costs for the voyage had increased by tens of thousands of dollars.
The Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, where tensions are concentrated, plays a large role in the transportation of maritime goods around the world. In particular, it is directly connected to the passage of the Suez Canal from the Gulf, and is an important passage for crude oil and fuel heading to the Mediterranean Sea through nearby pipelines.
The Bab al-Mandab Strait, a conduit for Israeli trade, is one of the world's most important shipping routes for goods heading east to Asia, including Russian oil.

An official who is a legal advisor to the Israeli military said on the 19th, “The Air Force is currently carrying out tens of thousands of attacks and often powerful firepower attacks to eliminate Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip,” adding, “There are truly tragically many civilian casualties during the attacks.” It’s happening,” he told Reuters.
He went on to say, “Israel knew before each airstrike that there would be civilian casualties, and carried out the attack because it judged that the military advantage would be greater,” admitting that the killing of civilians was included in the operation.
Another senior Israeli military official said, “90% of the daily bombings in Gaza are ‘pre-planned,’” adding, “Pre-planning includes a 10-step process of determining whether a target is worth military elimination and predicting the likelihood of civilian casualties.” ‘Operation included’ was confirmed.